Building a firm foundation for social services

The recent move by the Government to launch the Care & Share movement for the social service sector is laudable. Through this initiative, many volunteer welfare organisations will benefit from the Government’s funding of up to S$250 million in matching grants.

The grants are aimed at raising capabilities, expanding capacity and building new programmes that meet emerging needs in our society.

This move is timely in view of the increasing spotlight on the charity sector and heightened demands for the sector to grow and improve efficiency to better serve the needs of stakeholders.

In the recent Budget announcement, the Government has committed to investing more in people in the social sector with an aim to build strong and effective networks across social services to tackle complex social challenges.

I personally hope that the opportunity to raise more funds will motivate and inspire charities to do more effective fund-raising, and ultimately create better programmes to meet the needs on the ground.

However, managing more funds also means greater accountability from the charities and increased pressure to remain transparent in their processes.

Charities should also take the opportunity to not just channel the funds to existing or new programmes, but to invest in the long term and create bigger impact through building the organisation’s capabilities and capacities. Where they may not have been able to do so before because of lack of resources, they could and should do so now with the matching grant.

WHY CAPACITY BUILDING

IS CRUCIAL

We know from the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre’s (NVPC) national giving survey that giving (both volunteerism as well as philanthropy) in Singapore is at an all-time high.

However, there are still many issues that exist within the giving ecosystem and a pressing one is infrastructure within non-profit organisations.

In striving to meet the needs and demands on the ground, many, including donors, tend to place too large an emphasis on structuring programmes so that every dollar is spent directly on beneficiaries.

It is not sustainable if the organisation’s own internal systems and processes are not fully developed. The long–term success of a charity’s efforts (or any business) is hugely dependant on its governance, processes and practices.

Factors such as how well it engages, informs and sustains its givers, both volunteers and donors; whether it is keeping up with technology to meet evolving demands; and how transparent the organisation is, are also key determinants of its sustainability.

Take for example the Care Corner Counselling Centre, whose hotline counselling service has been fully manned by volunteers since it started operating more than 25 years ago.

Care Corner has an exemplary volunteer management system.

The centre has made volunteering vital to its services and has been able to entice volunteers to give more and come back year after year.

Each of its volunteer counsellors dedicates at least 100 duty hours each year manning Care Corner’s hotline service.

With this robust system, the centre has over the years managed to help thousands of people cope with life’s challenges.

For its ability to manage and retain volunteers, the centre was also awarded the President’s Award for Volunteerism last year.

In the same vein, a survey the NVPC released late last year on the link between giving and happiness found that both volunteers and donors who had high satisfaction with their experience with the charities they volunteered in or gave to were more likely to volunteer or donate in the future.

This underpins the important role charities play in the giving equation.

Charities need to invest in developing systems that will create smooth and positive experiences for volunteers and donors because doing so will ultimately increase the likelihood of repeat giving.

It is only logical then that investing in infrastructure should be a priority.

WAYS TO JUMP-START

Building infrastructure may not always be a complicated or ineffective process. The NVPC offers charities capability-building and organisational-development programmes that can help establish best practices within charities.

For example, the NVPC’s Independent Charity Analysis Framework builds transparency for charities through telling a comprehensive story about their work in various areas such as governance, leadership, finance and its programmes.

This then gives philanthropists more confidence in how their donations are being used. The NVPC also runs a Volunteer Management Consultants programme to help charities formulate and implement solutions to enhance volunteer management systems.

Empact, a social enterprise founded by a former PricewaterhouseCoopers senior staffer, similarly offers training for charities, assisting them in working with corporate volunteers looking to offer skilled and professional services.

I hope that through Care & Share and the additional funding that the Government has made available we will see a real investment in best practices within the not-for-profit sector.

This will go a long way towards ensuring sustainability of the organisations that are so vital for our country and its communities.

ABOUT THE WRITER:

Laurence Lien is a Nominated Member of Parliament, Chief Executive of the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre and Chairman of the Lien Foundation.